Keratin-containing fibers are in principle understood to include all animal hair, e.g. wool, horsehair, angora hair, furs, feathers and products or fabrics produced from them. However, the keratinic fibers preferably concern human hair.
Today, a suitably looking hairstyle is generally regarded as an essential part of a well groomed appearance. Based on current fashion trends, time and again hairstyles are considered chic, which, for many types of hair, can only be formed or sustained over a longer period of up to several days by the use of certain setting materials. Thus, hair treatment agents that provide a permanent or temporary hairstyling play an important role. Temporary styling intended to provide a good hold, without compromising the healthy appearance of the hair, such as, for example their gloss, can be obtained for example by the use of hairsprays, hair waxes, hair gels, hair foams, setting lotions etc.
Suitable compositions for temporary hairstyling usually comprise synthetic polymers, so called setting polymers, as the styling component. Preparations comprising a dissolved or dispersed polymer can be applied on the hair by means of propellants or by a pumping mechanism. Hair gels and hair waxes in particular are however not generally applied directly on the hair, but rather dispersed with a comb or by hand.
An important property of an agent for the temporary styling of keratinic fibers, in the following also called styling agents, consists in giving the treated fibers the strongest possible hold in the created shape. If the keratinic fibers concern human hair, then one also speaks of a strong hairstyle hold or a high degree of hold of the styling agent. The styling hold is determined essentially by the type and quantity of the synthetic polymer used, but there may also be an influence from the other components of the styling agent. Ideally these polymers form a polymer film when applied to hair, imparting on the one hand a strong hold to the hairstyle but on the other hand also being sufficiently flexible not to break under stress. If the polymer film is too brittle, so-called film plaques develop, i.e. residues that are shed with movement of the hair and give the impression that the user of the respective styling agent has dandruff.
In addition to a high degree of hold, styling agents must fulfill a whole series of additional requirements. These requirements can be broadly subdivided into properties on the hair, properties of the formulation in question, e.g. properties of the foam, the gel or the sprayed aerosol, and properties that concern the handling of the styling agent, wherein particular importance is attached to the properties on the hair. In particular, moisture resistance, low stickiness and a balanced conditioning effect should be mentioned.
To develop styling agents that in combination have all the desired properties still presents problems. This particularly applies to the combination of esthetic factors on the one hand and to the strong and flexible hold on the other hand. In order to impart a strong hold, the setting polymer has to adhere well to the keratin-containing fibers and form a sufficiently hard film. Nevertheless, the resulting polymer film should not lend the tactility of a board to the collective fibers, but rather impart a degree of flexibility to the fibers, without losing the marked styling of the collective fibers, i.e. a hair style.
Accordingly, the object of the present invention was to provide an agent for the temporary styling of keratinic fibers, which is characterized by a very high degree of hold and excellent care properties of the keratin-containing fibers.